A large-scale marijuana ring that smuggled an estimated $36 million of pot into Colorado from Mexico has been busted, according to authorities.
The smugglers used tour buses to ferry more than 45,000 pounds of pot into the metro area over an 11-month period, according to a media release from the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.
The West Metro Drug Task Force and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) agents began an investigation into the ring in May 2010.
On June 3, a Jefferson County grand jury returned a 96-count indictment with 23 suspects, the district attorney’s office said.
The pot was compressed into bricks and hidden in specialized compartments installed underneath the buses.
The marijuana – typically 400 pounds per bus — was unloaded twice a week at a warehouse in Commerce City.
Investigators believe the pot originated in Durango, Mexico, and entered the country through El Paso, Texas.
The buses did not carry passengers. Only the driver and another person were on the buses, said Pam Russell, a district attorney’s office spokeswoman.
The Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas is suspected of being the marijuana source.
As part of the investigation authorities seized more than 1,700 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $937,600.
Police also seized $134,000 in cash, 14 vehicles, seven firearms, two kilograms of cocaine worth $64,000, and 53 grams of methamphetamine worth $3,200.
Locally, Conrado Arellano-Casas, 32, is the alleged ring leader. A search warrant served at his Arvada home netted an AK47 and $30,000 in cash.
An El Paso man, Jose Jimenez-Chacon, 30, is suspected of being the ring leader in the United States. He’s been arrested by DEA agents on a Jefferson County warrant.
An estimated 75 percent of the marijuana brought into Colorado was sold and distributed in the Denver-metro area, investigators said.
Eighteen of the twenty-three people named as suspects in the indictment have been arrested, prosecutors said, and the five at large are believed to be in Mexico.
Ten of the people arrested are suspected of being in the United States illegally and are on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds.
Six of the suspects have been charged with racketeering in addition to other charges, which include distribution of more than 100 pounds of marijuana.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
